Evaluation of the mobility of copper from fungicide in soils

• Grant number: 21/05635-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2021
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Márcia Andreia Mesquita Silva da Veiga
• Grantee: Leticia Miranda Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The region of Ribeirão Preto has great prominence in agriculture, being responsible for 94.5% of the national production of peanuts. In the plantations of this legume, there is a high incidence of fungal diseases that cause several risks to the production and consequently the economy, so that for the control of pathologies, copper-based fungicides are used, such as Cu2Cl(OH)3, which are not absorbed by the plants, but act directly on the surface of the leaves. Rainwater can cause the transport of the pesticide from the plant to the soil, so that, depending on the mobility of the fungicide according to physical-chemical parameters of the soil solution, the leaching of the pesticide can contaminate the environment and percolate through the soil reaching the groundwater. As the region of Ribeirão Preto has its total supply dependent on the Guarani Aquifer, the contamination of these waters compromises the health of the entire population, since copper oxychloride causes several collateral damages to human physiological systems. Thus, this work aims to determine the mobility and retention in the soil of the fungicide containing copper oxychloride as an active ingredient, through soil characterization, the study of adsorption isotherms, and quantification of Cu as a function of different depths by the technique of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry.